The Dormaa East District Assembly in the Bono Region has distributed 20,000 hybrid coconut seedlings to some farmers at Nsesresu, in the district, under the government’s Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme.

Already, the assembly had supported the nursing of 12,000 coconut seedlings at the Nsesresu nursing site and an additional 8,000 seedlings at the Merefrewuo nursery site in the district.

Making the presentation at a short ceremony, the District Chief Executive, Emmanuel Kofi Agyemang, advised the beneficiary farmers not to sell the seedlings but plant them to ensure that the programme was successful, sustained and inure to their benefit.

He said the assembly, and by extension the government was spending much on the PERD programme and implored the farmers to help make value of the coconut seedlings, indicating that between 2018 and 2021, the assembly had distributed more than one million cashew seedlings to farmers in the area.

Value addition

The Mawarehene of the Dormaa Traditional Area, Barimah Effiriti Sampon-Siaw, appealed to the farmers to consider the process of adding value to their produce, instead of focusing only on producing raw materials.

He urged the unemployed in the area to take advantage of the PERD programme and engage in cashew and coconut production to better their lot. 

The Dormaa East District Director of Agriculture, Mr Gordon Tuah, took the farmers through the proper method of planting and urged them to seek the services of the Extension Officers to improve their farm work.  — GNA

Source: GraphicOnline